Monday, April 29, 2013

I don't have a comic for you this week. April has been a very busy month. I've spoken at TWENTY schools--in Kansas, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, and my own state of Utah.

While in DC, I had one unscheduled afternoon. So I made it my mission to get a photo of this guy:

This is Cher Ami, a one-legged stuffed pigeon who can be found in the WWI cabinet in the Museum of American History at the Smithsonian.

I guess now is as good as place as any to reveal it, Hazardous Tales #4 is about World War One.

This pigeon is a bonafide WWI hero. He helped save a group of American soldiers known as the Lost Battalion. How? Well, you'll have to look him up. I don't want to spoil his adventure here. Will Cher Ami be appearing in his own comic soon? Chances are pretty good.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

No comic this Monday, but I do have some fun slides to show. These are from my brand new history presentation, which I'm debuting this week!

The center of the presentation is the idea of history as a MAZE.

Inside the history maze, we meet many people--here are two VERY interesting guys. They are key players in the Haitian Revolution:

I will be doing my new history presentation and signing books all this week! You can see me:

Monday, April 22, 4:00-6:00--Jabberwocky Books, Fredericksberg, VA

Tuesday, April 23, 4:00--BBGB Books, Richmond, VA

Wednesday, April 24, 3:00--The Children's Bookstore, Baltimore, MD

Thursday, April 25, 10:30 signing, 7:00--Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington DC, panel on graphic novels, GROWING UP WITH GRAPHICS with Eleanor Davis, Andres Vera Martinez, and Mark Siegel moderated by Michael Cavna from the Washington Post! This is for ages 15 and up.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Monday, April 15, 2013

As you know, the first edition of BIG BAD IRONCLAD! had a humongous error in the endpaper. We accidentally had Kansas colored as a Confederate state. This was not something we could just sweep under the rug.

The good librarians at the Lackman branch of the Johnson County Library system in Kansas, brought me out to apologize in person for this grievous error. Here are the photos of that ceremony.

This is the Table of SHAME--also the Table of CORRECTION. On it, there is a poster-sized version of the endpaper, with Kansas a neutral white (not the erroneous Confederate Gray), a stack of hand-bound BLEEDING KANSAS mini-comics--EXCLUSIVE to this event, a stack of the hilariously over-sized Hazardous Tales bookmarks (larger than the actual books) and our Unionizer marker.

After an official statement by me (followed by a loud BOO-ing of my mistake) I gave an hour-long presentation on the Bleeding Kansas history, Lewis and Clark in Kansas, even a bit about the lone member of the Donner Party who died in Kansas--all Kansas history tales. We then moved on to the Unionizing of the map.

Everyone got a chance to color in a small piece of Kansas. We actually had two of these maps to accommodate everyone.

The librarians gave me an official "FREE STATE" hat to wear, to remind me that Kansas was indeed a FREE STATE.

At the end we had two maps, one for the library and one for me, showing Kansas as a UNION state.

We then brought the presentation to several Kansas grade schools in the area, where there was even more BOO-ing. All in all, it was a great apology tour. I think me and Kansas are square now.

A big thanks to everyone who came to the events. I'd especially like to thank Chris and Barbara at the Lackman library who took care of me, and everyone involved in the set up.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Things are heating up in Kansas! Wait until you see what happens tomorrow.

Taco Hell fans, we're going to take a break this week. I think both stories will suffer if I post them on top of each other. We'll jump right back into it when Bleeding Kansas is through. The grand Taco finale is right around the corner!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

The one in the middle is the one I over-nighted. If you look at it's end, and the end of the one on the right, you'll see they are both receiving ends. My drawing monitor is an old CINTIQ, 2007 era. My computer uses a fancy-schmancy mini-VG-doo-dad. I already have a ridiculous daisy chain of attachments to get it to work. I should have drawn a diagram before purchasing this latest item. But wait, I can't draw a diagram--my drawing machine can't connect! Why not just draw it on paper!? Because I can't post paper on my blog! AAAAGHGHG!

But fear not! The curse ends Friday {EDIT: the post won't be up until Friday afternoon}{DOUBLE EDIT: Saturday} {TRIPLE EDIT: Ugh, Tuesday.} when I will no longer be using my travel rig. I will be back on my trusty, home studio set-up.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Uh-oh! Space Station Emergency! The little dongle attachment that connects my drawing monitor to my computer went KAPUT! Amazon is rushing me a new one this minute, but there will be no post today. You will have to wait until tomorrow for the next Taco Hell installment.

Monday, April 1, 2013

The Hazardous Mondays in April will all be dedicated to Kansas! We made a HUGE historical error, and we are going to fix it! We are going to learn why Kansas wasn't a Confederate state--why it was a "Free State," and how it happened. We are also going to visit Kansas on an official apology and correction trip. When we are finished, all Hazardous Tales readers will know how to correct their own copy of Big Bad Ironclad! Stay tuned!